


Teammates

by BlueTeamSucks



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Flashback, Post Season 11, teammates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2623112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueTeamSucks/pseuds/BlueTeamSucks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash looked up sharply at the frantic tone in Tucker's voice. His heart thudded at the possibility of danger and he anxiously chewed on his bottom lip. Wash quickly scanned the canyon for any signs of what could be wrong. He caught sight of Tucker, who was running towards Wash as fast as he could.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teammates

"Washington!"

Wash looked up sharply at the frantic tone in Tucker's voice. His heart thudded at the possibility of danger and he anxiously chewed on his bottom lip. Wash quickly scanned the canyon for any signs of what could be wrong. He caught sight of Tucker, who was running towards Wash as fast as he could.

Tucker was actually voluntarily running, so Wash knew that something was very wrong. As Tucker got closer, Wash could see a sniper rifle gripped in his hands. Wash hurriedly set down his tools and stopped fiddling with the radio.

"Tucker? What's happened?" Wash stood up when Tucker reached him, trying to find out what had Tucker so upset.

Tucker tossed the sniper rifle to the ground carelessly and braced his hands on his knees, panting slightly. "Church... Church is gone, I don't know where he is. I can't find him. I only found his goddamn sniper rifle on that ledge up there." Tucker gestured to one of the cliffs in the background.

That wasn't good. Wash's stomach twisted and his gut told him to listen to Tucker, for once. He had learned to trust his instincts long ago, but Wash still tried to make an excuse for Church. "Maybe he's with Carolina. He's been spending a lot of time with her lately."

"I don't know where she is, either. Caboose is in the base and the Reds are fucking around in their side of the canyon, but no Carolina or Church." Tucker straightened up, his cheeks still flushed from running.

No Carolina and no Church? Tucker was definitely right, something was wrong. Still trying not to jump to conclusions, Wash ran a dirty hand through his blonde hair. He managed to find some reason and calm inside of him. "Let's go see if they're at Red base. Sarge could've done something to annoy them."

Tucker gave Wash a doubtful look, but followed him as Wash jumped to the ground. The two of them jogged across the canyon, both trying to seem as calm as they could be. If something had happened to either of their friends, then they had to find Carolina and Church as quickly as possible. Deep down inside, Wash knew that something wasn't right.

Grif kicked a can in their direction as they approached Red base. He missed by a mile, but he didn't seem to care. "What has you two all scared looking? And holy shit, Tucker. Were you actually running? I thought that we were friends."

"Not now, Grif," Tucker snapped. Grif looked surprised, but kept his mouth shut for once. He usually wasn't one to argue when things got tense.

Wash waved the rest of Red team over from their shady spot underneath their base's overhang. Sarge and Simmons slowly wandered over. Lopez refused to move, which Wash was fine with. The Spanish robot was actually pretty sarcastic instead of helpful and Wash didn't feel like dealing with him at the moment. The rest of the Reds, Doc and Donut, we're both elsewhere. Neither of them had been on the ship that had crashed on this strange planet.

"Have any of you seen Carolina or Church?" Wash asked bluntly.

All of the Reds slowly shook their heads, except for Lopez, who shrugged. He wandered over to the group at a leisurely pace and stood a couple of steps behind everyone else. Wash kept an eye on him as Sarge grunted.

"Nope. If there was a Blue over here, I'd shoot 'em!" Sarge snorted and proudly put his hands on his hips. With a shared glance, Tucker and Wash both decided to not point out the fact that the two of them were on Blue team. Neither of them particularly felt like getting shot today.

"Idiota."

Tucker ignored Sarge and Lopez, instead asking Grif and Simmons for help, "Seriously? None of you have seen Carolina or Church?"

Lopez finally spoke up after regarding them for awhile. "Tengo. Ellos fueron arriba en la cornisa. Pero supongo idiotas nunca sabrá eso. ¿Por qué me molesto?"

"The ledge? Which one?" Wash turned around to look at the cliff faces, searching for a possible hiding spot. He was gonna be so pissed when he found Church and Carolina.

Lopez jumped when Wash responded to him. If a robot could look surprised while wearing heavy metal armor, then Locus did right now. "Me puedes entender?" He exclaimed in confusion.

Wash gave him a puzzled look. "Yeah, I've always been able to understand you. Did you not know that?" It would explain many of Lopez's offhand comments if he had thought that nobody else could understand what he was saying.

"¡No! No tenía idea de que hablaba español, me he hablado con usted si hubiera sabido!" Lopez crossed his arms stiffly. Tucker and the Reds were staring at both of them blankly.

Wash shrugged sheepishly, a little embarrassed that he had never spoken to Lopez or let him know that he was understood by someone. "I actually speak Portuguese, not Spanish. You talk fast, it's hard to catch everything you say sometimes. But I can grasp Spanish well enough. And Italian."

"Wait, really?" Tucker interjected, an interested look on his face.

Lopez and Wash both ignored him. Lopez sniffed at Wash. "Bueno, deberías haber dicho algo."

"Sorry. We can talk about it later, but we really need to find Carolina and Church. I'm a little worried. Where did you say that you last saw them?" A little worried was a bit of an understatement. Carolina wasn't one to disappear without any warning. Sure, she liked to be cryptic, but at least she had always said something before leaving on whatever important mission she had found out about. Now, Carolina was just... Gone.

Lopez pointed at the cliff above Blue base. "Hasta allí. Buscaban abajo. Tuve que ir a ayudar a solucionar el Warthog, pero cuando regresé diez minutos más tarde, ya no estaban."

Wash shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight and squinted up at the ledge Lopez was pointing at. "How long ago was that?"

"Unos treinta minutos."

"Is that where they were?" Tucker asked hesitantly, staring in the direction that Wash was facing.

Wash glanced over at Tucker. He was gnawing on his bottom lip anxiously and his forehead was creased with worry. "According to Lopez, yeah. About forty minutes ago, both of them were up there. Why?"

Tucker shifted his weight and sighed deeply. "That's where I found Church's sniper rifle. It was just laying there, up on that ledge."

"So, what do you guys think happened? Were they kidnapped? Did they get lost? Oh! Maybe they were caught by a Freelancer! Or they could've found us help!" Simmons asked excitedly. Grif and Sarge both perked up a bit at the mention of possibly getting rescued from this dismal box canyon in the middle of nowhere.

Tucker turned to Wash and everyone waited for his answer. Wash's gut twisted and he looked away from the cliff. He hated to admit it, but he knew what had happened. "No. They aren't getting us help. They ran away from us," Wash said bitterly.

There was a brief silence where the Reds awkwardly shuffled in the dirt and Tucker stared intensely at the ground.

"Oh. Sorry," Simmons apologized quietly.

"Where would they even go?" Grif scoffed, then shut up at the glares he received from everyone.

Tucker slowly shook his head. "Who the fuck cares? Come on, Wash. Let's go back to the base." With that, Tucker just walked off. Wash followed him, after nodding goodbye to the Reds. Wash dragged his feet in the dirt as he walked just behind Tucker. His faded black boots kicked up dust with every step he took, making his already dirty fatigues even filthier.

They were quiet on the walk back, both of them thinking about their missing friends. Part of Wash had wanted to believe that Carolina would never abandon him after Project Freelancer, that the two of them would be teammates and friends and would always support each other. The other half of him had known that that would never happen. Carolina had never been happy with the aftermath of the Project. Wash was never her favorite, that would've gone to York or Maine, hell even Connie and South were closer to Carolina than Wash had been. Still, it was just the two of them left now and Wash had expected her to at least make an effort.

"So, which one of us is gonna have to tell Caboose that his best friend ran away from him?" Tucker asked. He sounded miserable. As they came to a stop in front of Blue base, Wash looked over at Tucker and took pity on him.

"I'll do it. You can go lay down or something," he offered. Tucker only gave him a grateful nob before trudging into the base. Wash ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair, trying to mentally prepare himself for the emotional wreck that would be Caboose in a few minutes.

He sighed, then stepped into Blue base. Tucker had already disappeared into his room with no trace of him left behind. Caboose sat on their broken couch, scribbling something on a piece of paper. When Wash got closer, he noticed that Caboose was drawing with crayons. He hesitantly sat down next to his friend and took a deep breath.

Caboose looked up at Wash and grinned. He held up the drawing and pointed at one of the messily drawn figures. "That's you, Wash! And there's me! And there's Church! Tucker is the one in the corner getting eaten by an alien." Caboose showed him who was who in the picture. Below where the blue armored people stood, 'My best friends' was scribbled in purple crayon.

Wash stared helplessly at the drawing. "Holy shit," he muttered under his breath. Then, he looked up at Caboose's happy expression and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Hey, buddy. That's a really good drawing."

Caboose nodded as if he already knew this. "Yes. I drew it for Church. Do you know where he is? I want to give it to him!"

Rubbing at the back of his neck, Wash desperately tried to think of something to say. "Well, Caboose... I have some bad news. Church and Carolina... They're going to be gone for a little while. They both left without saying anything."

"Oh." Caboose put the drawing down. Wash waited for the waterworks, but was surprised by Caboose bouncing up and down excitedly. "That's okay! I'll give it to him when he gets back! Where did they go?"

Wash suddenly realized that Caboose didn't understand what he was saying. He didn't know that Church and Carolina had left them, maybe forever. Wash struggled to find a way to explain. "I don't know where they went, Caboose. They didn't tell us. Both of them just left and we don't know how long they'll be gone. We don't even know if they're ever coming back. I'm sorry, buddy."

Caboose frowned at Wash. "Church... Left me? And Carolina left you? Without even telling us goodbye?"

Wash felt like he had been hit in the stomach with a bag of rocks. "Yeah. They did," he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.

Caboose sniffled and Wash really hoped that he didn't start crying. He didn't know how to handle that. Instead, Caboose leaned against his side and curled up against him. Wash froze, his eyes wide at the trust in him that Caboose was showing. He hesitantly put an arm around Caboose's shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.

"Do you miss Carolina?" Caboose suddenly asked.

Thinking about his answer carefully, Wash resisted the urge not to shrug so that he wouldn't bump Caboose off of him. After a minute of thought, he nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess that I do miss her."

"I miss Church. But I'm starting to get used to missing him because we get separated a lot. Do you and Carolina ever get separated?" Caboose toyed with the fabric of Wash's gray shirt.

Wash's mind turned to the time after Project Freelancer when The Meta had thrown Carolina off the cliff at Sidewinder. All of them had thought that she had died at the bottom of that ravine. Except for York, of course. Ever loyal, he had insisted that she was alive up to the time that Wyoming shot him. Wash wondered how he had known that Carolina had survived. He wished that the two of them had been able to see each other again.

Trying not to get choked up, Wash nodded again. He remembered Carolina tapping him on the shoulder while he was arguing with Tucker over Church's responsibilities. He remembered the sudden reunion where he had realized that he wasn't the only one left. Instead of saying this, however, Wash told Caboose of a different time and a different place. "All the time during Project Freelancer. We all had missions that made us leave for a few days, sometimes even weeks."

Caboose looked up at Wash, his eyes big and curious. "Did you meet Carolina during Project Freelancer?"

Wash gave him a half smile. "Uh-huh. That's where I met a lot of people that I was friends with."

"Like Wyoming?" Caboose asked.

"Well, I knew him. I wasn't great friends with him or anything," Wash answered, happy to distract Caboose from being upset.

Caboose sat up. "Really? What was he like?"

As he tried to remember something good about Wyoming, Wash chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Um, he had a mustache. Like the ones in cartoons. And he had this really annoying British accent that I'm pretty sure was fake. And he told a lot of bad knock-knock jokes. He was a pretty good soldier, though. Better than me most of the time."

"What about Texas?" Caboose questioned seriously.

Texas, Wash could definitely remember. "She was the best out of all of us. On her first day she beat up Maine, Wyoming, and York all at once. Pretty much the same Texas you knew, just a little bit younger and meaner."

That seemed to satisfy Caboose. "Good. I like Tex." He paused, thinking over what Wash had just told him. "Who's Maine?"

That question made Wash suck in a breath. "Er... Do you remember The Meta?" Caboose nodded in response, so Wash continued, "Well, The Meta used to be a Freelancer before his AI, Sigma, took over his mind. That's Maine. He was a nice guy. Actually, we were best friends. We used to play stupid pranks on everyone together."

There was a snort from the doorway leading to their quarters. Wash turned around to see Tucker leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. " _You_ actually played pranks? I don't believe it."

Wash rolled his eyes. "Shut up. I used to do it all the time. Once Maine and I put itching powder on the crash mats. Then, Carolina and Connie had a sparring match on one of them. They got back at us by putting hair dye in our shampoo, but it was worth it."

Tucker wandered over to the couch, sitting on Wash's right. "What color was your hair?"

"Bright fucking pink. Maine was yellow, it looked so bad. He just started shaving his hair off after that. I didn't wimp out like him, I had pink hair for three months. Eventually, The Director made me change it because of regulation, so my hair was bleached bright blonde for a while after that." Wash gestured to his now normal, sandy colored hair.

Caboose giggled at the image of Wash with pink hair. He reached out and tugged on a few strands. "You should make it pink again. You and Donut could match."

That made Tucker laugh loudly. Wash's cheeks burned with embarrassment, but at least Tucker and Caboose weren't thinking about Church. "You know who would match with Donut? A Freelancer named Florida. Man, if I didn't know better, I would say that they were related."

Tucker raised an eyebrow, looking like he was trying to seem uninterested. Caboose just cocked his head to the side and said, "Florida? What were they like? I've never heard of a Florida Freelancer."

"Yeah, what about what happened to the actual Florida? Why would it count as a state?" Tucker asked.

Wash thought about their questions and did his best to answer them. "Well... It was before the actual Florida... You know..." The three of them were silent for a moment, before Wash tried to put Florida into words. "He was nice. I think. Really good at stealth, amazing with tomahawks and explosives. He was kind of creepy and was really cheerful. Although, Flowers always wanted all of the male Freelancer to call him 'daddy.' Even The Director. That was kind of weird, to be honest."

Tucker's head snapped up and he stared at Wash, slack-jawed. "Flowers?"

"Yeah, that's what he insisted we call him if we refused to use daddy. I think it was his last name or something, I don't know. He was kind of mysterious. We never did find out what happened to him, he kind of disappeared toward the end of the Project," Wash answered, wondering why Tucker had reacted so strongly to the name.

"Dude. Captain Butch Flowers. He was the Captain of Blue team before Caboose showed up. He died because of an allergic reaction or something. I stole his armor, that's how I got the teal," Tucker told him with a tone of amazement.

Wash blinked in surprise and struggled to think of something to say. "Um, small world?"

"Shut up, asshole. That can't be a coincidence." Tucker rolled his eyes at Wash's reaction. Caboose just sat and happily looked between the two of them as they went back and forth.

Wash mulled it over in his head. "Maybe... Maybe The Director destroyed the actual Florida to have a reason to send Flowers away... To Blood Gulch? Why would he want to have Flowers go there...?"

"To watch over Church," Tucker finished for him.

Wash sat back against the couch. "Holy shit. We need to tell Carolina this, she'll- Oh. Right."

Tucker gave Wash an empathetic look. Caboose took the sudden silence as a cue to ask more questions, which Wash was immensely grateful for. "What was Carolina like during Project Freelancer? Was she the same, like Texas was?"

"Do you guys want the short version or the long version?" Wash smirked at them.

Tucker shrugged indifferently, but Caboose grinned cheerfully. "Long version! Yay, story time!"

Smiling slightly at Caboose, Wash started to recall meeting Carolina for them. "Well, it was my first day on the Mother of Invention and I was pretty nervous..."

 

Sighing to himself, David stared down at the crinkled paper in his hands telling him who he was. It was all about the new military project that he had signed up for and was covered in complicated words that David didn't even recognize.

Wait, no. He wasn't David anymore, he was Washington. Washington, the cold, hard, badass soldier who was apart of an intense military program. Not David, the kid who couldn't tie his own shoes until the third grade.

Washington shifted in his brand new, extremely heavy armor, disliking the way it felt. He assumed that he would have to get used to it, though. He had heard that it became like a second skin to the people who wore it. Washington really hoped that he would never get used to the grossly colored, clunky suit that he was being forced to wear. When he thought about it, his new armor was a lot like his new name.

"Good morning, agent Washington." An awkwardly smiling man with dark skin stepped into the room Washington had been shoved into and told to wait in.

Washington nodded at him, not really sure what he was supposed to say.

Fortunately, the man talked for him. "I am The Counselor here at Project Freelancer. I assist The Director and you agents in any way I can. You have met The Director, correct?"

Remembering the older man with the southern drawl, Washington nodded again. "Yes, sir."

The Counselor gave him a more genuine smile. "Good. I'm going to introduce you to the rest of the Freelancers, then they can show you to your quarters. It's getting pretty late."

Washington allowed himself to be led out of the small room and into the huge hallways of the ship. He couldn't control the urge to stare at the high ceilings and blinking lights in amazement. For a moment, David was able to forget about who he was supposed to be now.

That moment was interrupted by a loud crash. Washington winced, but The Counselor seemed unperturbed. They walked into a large room with windows looking down into it. Several people in even more ridiculous armor stood around watching two other soldiers fighting in the center of the room. Washington tensed up, not sure what to make of the scene.

He decided to focus on the two people who were fighting. Washington wasn't sure if the were sparring or seriously trying to kill each other. One of them was huge, too big to be a normal human. Their armor was mostly white, with some streaks of red that looked more like blood than decoration. They had a golden fishbowl helmet that had even less emotion than the standard model.

The other soldier that was fighting was was faster and smaller. They were using this as an advantage against their opponent, easily dodging hits that would've taken Washington's head off. Their armor was bright cyan and Washington couldn't help but scoff at the color. Their helmet though, made it look like they had a permanent glare.

Washington's jaw dropped as the Freelancer in cyan easily knocked the other to the ground. Another soldier in tan armor clapped enthusiastically and moved forward to help the one on the ground. Washington gulped nervously as The Counselor cleared his throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. Everyone's gaze was suddenly on Washington.

"Agents, this is the new recruit, Washington. I trust that you'll introduce yourselves to him." The Counselor clapped Washington on the back, then turned on his heels and left without another word. Washington had expected a little more help, but he couldn't say that he was surprised.

He stared after The Counselor for a few brief seconds, then turned back to the staring crowd of Freelancers. Washington's mind had gone totally blank and he couldn't think of anything to say other than, "Hello?"

One of the two Freelancer that had purple armor scoffed. "I guess they found someone to replace Georgia. What's your name, kid?" She sounded like she didn't really care, but Washington decided to ignore the dull tone.

"Washington, ma'am."

This made her turn toward him and cock her head to the side. "I meant your actual name. Not the bullshit state name."

"Um, I'm not supposed to tell you that, ma'am." Washington awkwardly tried to be polite.

She snorted and slowly shook her head, as if disappointed. "Damn. One of these days, a rookie is gonna fall for that."

The other Freelancer in purple made a motion like he was rolling his eyes. "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish with that, South. All that you manage to do is confuse them even more." He turned to Washington and held out a hand. "Hey there, newbie. I'm North. This is my twin sister, South."

Washington gratefully shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Dude, you don't have to be so formal. We're not gonna bite. Well, most of us aren't." The soldier in tan armor walked over to them. He made a fist and held it out to Washington. "I'm York."

Washington could tell that York was smiling underneath his helmet, so he hesitantly bumped York's fist. "Um, hey."

"There we go, talking like a regular person now," York laughed. He reached up and took off his helmet, making Washington relax a bit. Like him, these people weren't just scary soldiers. York was like a person out of a movie. He was the token handsome guy with swoopy brown hair and a dazzling smile.

York gestured to a short Freelancer with a strange helmet. "So, we're gonna need to get you a nickname, like Connie's. Washington is way too much of a mouthful."

Connie folded her arms and gave York a look like she didn't really appreciate the nickname. Everyone seemed to think about his name for a second, before a rough voice announced, "Wash."

They all stared at the huge Freelancer with the gold helmet. He had gotten up from the ground and wandered over to the small circle that had gathered around Washington.

York gaped at him. "Dude, Maine actually just spoke! Am I hearing things?"

Maine smacked the side of York's head lightly. He said nothing else as everyone looked at Washington for his opinion on the nickname.

Washington just shrugged. "Well, I already have one new name, why not two?"

North chuckled and York grinned. Wash decided that he liked them the best so far.

"So, _Wash_. What are you here for?" The cyan Freelancer had taken off her helmet to reveal a pretty girl with flowing red hair and intense green eyes,

Wash nervously looked at her, trying not to be intimidated by her glare. "Sorry?"

"You have to specialize in something to be accepted into Project Freelancer. Maine is hand to hand combat. York is security. North is the sniper. What are you?" She glowered at him and Wash had to rack his brain to remember who he was.

"Um, I'm good with guns? I mean, I'm a weapons specialist." Wash mentally kicked himself for tripping over his words.

She relaxed and smiled at that. "Good. We could use a weapons specialist. I hope you're actually good at it, because it seems like some of us can't really do our jobs very well."

York made a face at her. "We were being shot at! I don't know if you know this, Carolina, but it's pretty fucking hard to pick a lock while bullets are flying right by your face."

Carolina rolled her eyes. "It's your job to pick locks while bullets are flying right by your face."

York grumbled, but shut up. Wash smiled to himself, forgetting that nobody could see him.

"Well, Wash. We're glad to have you on the team," Carolina nodded at him, "I hope that you survive."

 

As Wash finished his story, he could still remember the light, but serious tone that Carolina had addressed him in. Little did either of them know at the time that they would be the only two to actually survive Project Freelancer.

"You miss her already, don't you?" Tucker asked with a sad expression.

Wash sighed and nodded. "Yeah. It hurts to be able to see her again and then have her gone so quickly. I mean, I thought that she was dead for years. Then, she turns up out of the blue with a mission of revenge. And now, Carolina is gone. Again. Who knows how long she'll be this time..." He trailed off, lost in thought about his teammate.

"Washington?" Caboose questioned in a small voice.

Having forgotten that he wasn't alone in the room, Wash jumped when Caboose spoke. "Uh, yeah Caboose? What is it?"

"Church and Miss Carolina are going to come back soon, right?" Caboose's eyes were wide and he was clutching onto Wash's shirt like a lifeline.

Instead of lying to Caboose, like he almost did, Wash sighed. "I'm sorry, Caboose, but I don't know. I just don't know."


End file.
